Toxic, Part 5

Toxic, Part 6

Toxic, Part 7

Toxic, Part 8

Toxic, Part 9

Toxic, Part 10

Dateline
September 27, 2013

Toxic, Part 11

Dateline
September 27, 2013

Toxic, Part 12

Dateline
September 27, 2013

This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>> narrator: for almost a week,
holly
mcfeature's family sat in a courtroom listening to prosecutors accuse
holly
of drip by drip, ounce by ounce feeding her fiance the poison, and watching him die. monstrous, evil, and, said her family, completely untrue. just nasty gossip, gussied up as ed.

>>it's just a bunch of people talking bad about my sister.

>>such a one-sided burn her at the stake type of scenario.

>> narrator: defense
attorneys brett jordan agreed.

>>it was all just finger pointing without any basis.

>> narrator: now they knew they would have too tell the jury something they personally believed in their gut, that
holly
mcfeature was wrongly accused. the
defense
began by putting some negative cards on the table.
holly
and matt had been fighting a lot, but that was hardly a surprise, two babies, one of them colicky and matt was out fishing all the time.

>>you can't say just because somebody's arguing every day, that's a sign of hatred and i'm going to kill that person.

>> narrator: and that story that went around about
holly
's behavior at matt's funeral, something how became this big myth that
holly
didn't care.

>>i can tell you right now that
holly
didn't care.

>>so you can crawl in her mind and you can tell everybody here what she was thinking?

>>no, you can read it on her face.

>>read it on her face.

>>you don't have to be crying your eyes out at a funeral to not be grieving.

>> narrator: no, the
defense
argued, all the testimony mall lining
holly
's behavior was really a product of six-plus years of rumor and innuendo, which according to matt's family, hard onned into sounding like truth, even if it wasn't.

>> narrator:if you listen to the witnesses, even
holly
's friend, they all turned away once they talked to the detective.

>>that was certainly the case, said the
defense
, when
holly
's friend
rebecca
vague zba.

>> narrator: after she heard from the police, said the
defense
, did she begin saying what she said at the trial.

>>but you have no idea how that man died, do you?

>>i didn't have to see physical proof.

>>i asked the question, you have no idea how that man died, do you?

>>not to my knowledge, no.

>>did the memory of all those happy days
rebecca
spent with
holly
suddenly sprout with suspicion once the detectives whispered in
rebecca
's ear?

>> narrator: holly
has children, and she's very careful. and i know she would not leave chemicals like that just lying around the house.

>>no, the assault on
holly
by her former friend, the
defense
said, was just a smoke screen, for the
hard evidence
the prosecution did not add. like anything connecting
holly
to the murder weapon, by which, of course you mean the anti-freeze. remember those two bottles of anti-freeze investigators found in
holly
and matt's house, after she moved out?

>> narrator: a
blue bottle
of peak an antifreeze and coolant.

>>the prosecution showed them off like the
crown jewels
, all the while knowing they had no connection with no prints on the bottles, no indication the anti-freeze was even the same kind. no indication the bottles were in
holly
's house.